[album review] Earth // Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II

Category Archives: Review

[album review] Earth // Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II

Written on February 22, 2012 by Rich in Review

Tympanogram Grade: B-

In all honesty, I’m not sure if I’m the most appropriate person to be writing this review. Brendan is much more knowledgeable of the drone genre, and I am by all accounts a greenhorn who familiar with some of the works of Philip Glass, Brian Eno’s new age ambient music and Tim Hecker’s 2011 album, Ravedeath, 1972. Please read this review as being from someone who has little to compare it to.

That being said, I was immediately captivated upon first listen of Earth’s Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II. Whether I truly enjoy it or not is something I’m still deliberating, but the melodies and fluid narrative of the songs is something to behold. And for that, after several attentive listens, I err on the side of this album being an impressive piece of work.

Upon conducting my due diligence around Earth’s history, I learned that the band is in the midst of an era known as Earth 2.0, a period where the band has built upon the doom and gloom in their drone and brought in drums and eclectic influences such as English folk rock and country. The country you can hear in the twang of the notes held by Dylan Carlson – founding member of the Seattle outfit, and close friend to the late Kurt Cobain. Built upon that twang and guitar slides are rhythms that craft each song into a downtrodden minstrel number from medieval times. “His Teeth Old Brightly Shine” is a prime example of this style, molding a story around a place that has been set upon by dark, dreary times.

With Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II, Carlson’s guitar playing may be the driver of this droning vehicle, but it is Lori Goldston’s cello that serves as the wheels that move each movement in the appropriate direction. Her scratches and strums on “A Multiplicity of Doors” are haunting. As she pulls her bow across the strings, you can actually feel the tension and emotion in each note as they are drawn out and placed underneath the guitar melodies and orchestral percussion.

Where the album falls a bit for me is not in the slow tempos, but more in the repetition. This plays more to my newness to the drone genre, and will probably be something that I become more accustomed to as I listen to more drone artists. I understand repeated harmonies are a defining characteristic in drone, but there is a missing sense of intensity that was present on Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I, and I don’t just mean in the volume. Both parts being recorded in the same session are a telling sign that part two is meant to serve as an aftermath to the destruction and chaos left in the wake of Part One – an epilogue that adds definitive notes and layers to a chaotic story. In essence, Part One’s intensity serves as the darkness, with Part Two’s clarity and sweeping melodic brushstrokes serving as the light.

For my tastes, I prefer Part One, but as a whole, it’s 100 minutes of powerful and expansive sounds, molded into a tale that is both intriguing and moving. As I listened to Part One, my interest and opinion improved upon each listen. I have no reason to think the same won’t happen with Part Two. For now, there’s still much to be learned from this work.

Connect with Earth // Facebook | Twitter | web

0 Comments - Leave a comment!

[show review] The Statesmen / Rockwood Music Hall, NYC / 3 February 2012

Written on February 21, 2012 by Eli in Music, Review

the statesmen [show review] The Statesmen / Rockwood Music Hall, NYC / 3 February 2012

As if my friend’s first-hand account wasn’t enough, the eye-popping bar charge, not to mention my waking distaste for light and noise, were pretty good indicators of why the previous night was just a little bit hazy for me. The Maker’s had made it’s mark. Yet one thing was still clear, the band that had carried my soul through the wee hours of the morning was still joyfully ringing in my ears.

One of the more underrated aspects of being a bandleader is actually putting the pieces of the band together. Sure, pure talent and songwriting are huge factors, but finding the right people to play out your vision is the key to bringing it all together. Songwriter Jonah Smith has found all the right pieces in his latest outfit The Statesmen. I caught them at the Rockwood Music Hall, a tiny club in the Lower East Side. Smith plays the keys and writes soul-infused rock music that is reminiscent contemporarily of JJ Grey.

For The Statesmen he recruited one of the best guitar players in the city in Scott Metzger. Formerly of Rana, Metzger has more recently become a go-to player for many bands and jams in the NYC area. I have witnessed him lay waste to many an audience with his unadulterated shredding, but it was great to see him succeed mightily in a more constrained environment, threading his notes perfectly within the fabric of the music. Like the opposite of seeing Coltrane let loose in his free jazz phase, Metzger was reining it in to great effect. Drummer Josh Dion complimented Smith with some soulful vocals of his own while blasting out the beat wildly but not recklessly, while Smith’s long-time bassist Ben Rubin solidly pocketed it all together in his solid grooves. They played a little over an hour and left us with the infectiously slinky “Better Than You.” What it left me was hungering for more, but unfortunately that was it. Which given my state, was probably for the best.

Connect with The Statesmen // Facebook | Bandcamp

0 Comments - Leave a comment!

[album review] Mux Mool // Planet High School

Written on February 13, 2012 by Rich in Music, Review

Planet High School Mux Mool 480 [album review] Mux Mool // Planet High School Tympanogram Grade: B+

The most telling sign that electronic artist Mux Mool (a.k.a. Brian Lindgren) has matured his sound is that his style has been clearly defined on his newest album, Planet High School - an instrumental hip-hop release that cuts the excess from his debut full-length, 2010’s Skulltaste.

Not to say that one release is better than the other, but Lindgren provides listeners with two distinct styles on each one: 8-bit electronica and silk smooth electronic hip-hop, with the latter being what Planet High School mostly consists of. The lone downside to this evolution is that the spastic melodic fury that was pumped throughout most of Skulltaste has been toned down. However, the listener is still able to reap the benefits from this change because Lindgren’s beats have never been this rhythmically tight or skillfully layered.

Right from the get go on “Brothers,” we are revealed a world that is reminiscent of a subdued Skulltaste. With staccato keys, ambient tones, and a basic break beat, the album’s mood is defined and set in motion. It’s this consistency that makes Planet High School such an important stage for Lindgren’s career. With Skulltaste, the excitement and hooks were all there. But there wasn’t an adhesive to unify the album. The result was a collection of songs that were mostly exciting and adventurous, but lacking in flow. From “Brothers” seguing into “Live from 7-11,” the listener can tell that the issue has been remedied.

Fading are the beeps, buzzes, and sharp synth melodies. While not completely absent, for the most part they have been replaced by lighter, almost ambient stylings, creating sounds that are less aggressive, but more soulful and fulfilling in how they are absorbed. “Palace Chalice” and “Ruin Everything” are prime examples of this. On the former, tribal rhythms dominate the percussion while multi-layered synths pulsate throughout the track. Gone is the robotic language, replaced by drones and cosmic sounds that overlay simple and perfect complementary beats. It’s the continuous drone into “Ruin Everything” that keeps the atmosphere alive, serving as a major artery to connect the two songs.

Lindgren’s enthusiasm and excitability from Skulltaste do pop their heads out from time to time. Tracks like “Raw Gore” and “Get Your Alphabets (Guns)” are as close as the album gets to Skulltaste throwbacks. “Raw Gore” has been created in a similar style to “Crackers,” existing in a constant state of build and release with the final segments being the richest in synth layers and drum pad rhythms. “Get Your Alphabets (Guns)” contains the spastic, knee-jerk beats that combine Lindgren’s style of using Nintendo-esque melodies to create atmosphere’s found in the deepest regions of science fiction. It’s a different type of mood music when compared to the mellow flow that’s laid out on a majority of the tracks.

To pick a favorite between Skulltaste and Planet High School would be a disservice to Lindgren’s work. Skulltaste defined Mux Mool as being an inventive name in electronic music by combining hip-hop with electronica and house characteristics. Planet High School took those accomplishments, refined them, and carefully molded them into an album that is intentionally more laid back, engrossing, and listenable. The consistency and flow from track to track has been the biggest improvement on this album–providing a definition on how to do more with less. And it’s worked well for Lindgren. Very well.

Connect with Mux Mool // web | Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud | MySpace

Mux Mool // Palace Chalice [mp3] from Planet High School.

0 Comments - Leave a comment!

[review] Guided By Voices // Let’s Go Eat the Factory

Written on February 9, 2012 by Brendan in Music, New Releases, Review

[review] Guided By Voices // Lets Go Eat the Factory

Tympanogram Grade: C+

Let’s Go Eat the Factory is the new release by Dayton, OH’s recently reunited Guided by Voices, and we all know what that means. GBV and Robert Pollard release massive quantities of music. Small songs and snippets dominate an uneven album.

The material is sketchy. There are some great moments, but too many songs bog the album down with tired mediocrity. GBV made some great albums: Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, King Shit and the Golden Boys, Mag Earwhig and Isolation Drills. Unfortunately, Let’s Go Eat the Factory is not one of them.

The problem isn’t that it is a bad record. It’s a very listenable record, actually, especially if you like GBV and recognize how nice it is to have the (once fired) Bee Thousand-era line-up back in Pollard’s good graces again. And obviously, Let’s Go Eat the Factory is a massive upswing from Pollard’s 13 individual solo releases of recent years which became a perpetual cruel joke.

The problem is that there comes a point when you need to expect more. “Hang Mr. Kite,” “Waves,” “Chocolate Boy,” “My Europa,” “The Unsinkable Fats Domino,” “How I Met My Mother,” “Doughnut for a Snowman,” “Spiderfighter,” “Imperial Racehorsing,” “We Won’t Apologize for the Human Race,” “God Loves Us,” and “Laundry & Lasers” are perfectly great songs. There’s always the promise of greatness in GBV, though, and that greatness is rarely attained outside of concert.

It’s been a damned long time since we’ve had a great GBV release. We’re long overdue. The good news is that Let’s Go Eat the Factory shows us that there is still the promise of greatness, but come on… the promise of greatness is there in every GBV record! I am getting tired of waiting for Pollard to deliver an all-around satisfying record; after all, it’s been about a decade since Earthquake Glue. All I want to see is a solid 40-minutes of music on one release, which shouldn’t be hard for a band that produces their level of material. The punchline – of course – is that Pollard has a solo album coming out in March.

Guided By Voices // The Unsinkable Fats Domino

Guided By Voices // Doughnut for a Snowman

0 Comments - Leave a comment!

[album review] Cloud Nothings // Attack On Memory

Written on January 27, 2012 by Andy in Music, Review

Tympanogram Grade: B+

The impending end of a person’s teenage years is an awkward time for anyone. Ideals that were held dear growing up are challenged, new ideas are constantly being introduced and incorporated. As a result, individuals can change drastically in a matter of months. For Cloud Nothings, that sort of change is evident in the band’s music, even if it’s not true in their personal lives. Attack On Memory is not a complete overhaul in the sound they’ve cultivated to this point in their career, but it represents a different trajectory, certainly.

The band’s self-titled 2011 debut marked off a corner of the lo-fi/punk market for the Cleveland four-piece. It was a burst of snotty energy, dressed down in Converse and an attitude of underdog entitlement; Cloud Nothings was confident and quick in its catchiness.

Attack On Memory, however, while it retains much of that attitude, proves that the band can do more than write two-minute screeds railing against the popular kids in his high school. Dylan Baldi, the force behind Cloud Nothings, has been hurt, and he’s unafraid to let that natural heartbreak work itself out on its own terms. It’s a universal truth: the end of teenaged love is a fertile ground for crappy art, although in the case of Cloud Nothings, it ends up being pretty damn spectacular.

The album starts off fairly innocuously, although if you’re familiar with Cloud Nothings, the opening piano strains might be off putting. “No Future/No Past” takes a long wind-up, meandering through the same, simple lyrics (“give up, come to, no, we’re through”) on its way to Baldi’s explosive conclusion of “no future, no past.” It’s a different take on what Cloud Nothings can do, and then the band follows it up with the extensive “Wasted Days,” a nearly nine-minute expanse, with a five-and-a-half-minute instrumental in the middle.

Taken together, those two songs comprise nearly 40% of the album’s 34 minutes, but the rest of the album, while comprising only of 6 songs, is no slouch. While it will sound more familiar to fans of the band than the first two songs, it finds the band at the most pop-centric (“Stay Useless”) and sing-along-able (“Fall In”); in short, the band has obviously started to grow up, and are much more capable at song-writing than their back catalog of brevity would let on.

Attack On Memory is passionate, angry, throaty, and catchy in all the right ways. Thematically it might be well-worn, but to expect more from a tandem of late-teen/early twentysomethings would be misguided. These guys are running across familiar lyrical ground, but they’re capable enough to do it in a compelling way. It’s a great next step for a band that could easily have been dismissed as a garage/punk one-off after their first album.

Connect with Cloud Nothings // Facebook | Twitter

Cloud Nothings // No Sentiment [mp3] from Attack On Memory

0 Comments - Leave a comment!